9 Killed as Police Fire on Bangkok Protesters : Thailand: Democracy supporters demand resignation of general as prime minister. More than 200 are hurt.

Police commandos fired into crowds of protesters Sunday and early today as violence erupted for the first time in pro-democracy demonstrations aimed at forcing the resignation of an army general who was appointed Thailand’s prime minister last month.

Reports said that at least nine people were killed in the gunfire and that more than 200 were injured, some of them seriously, when police used batons to disperse demonstrators.

Prime Minister Suchinda Kraprayoon, who was the target of the demonstration, declared a state of emergency in Bangkok and the surrounding provinces. The measure banned public meetings of more than 10 people, imposed strict press censorship and gave the authorities the power to arrest anyone deemed a threat to national security.

The protests, which have recurred since Suchinda was appointed prime minister in April without having run in an election, started peacefully Sunday. More than 120,000 people, including a cross-section of students, academics and members of the country’s burgeoning middle class, gathered near Bangkok’s ornate royal palace in the largest protest here since 1973, when students mobilized to oust a military regime.

The protesters then tried to march on Suchinda’s offices at Government House about a mile away, but were met by police who unrolled a barbed wire barricade. When the demonstrators pressed on, the police opened fire with water cannons mounted on trucks.

In response, demonstrators broke through police lines and set the trucks ablaze, hurled Molotov cocktails and then went on to loot a police station. Dozens of cars were smashed, and there were reports that some damage was inflicted by police officers wielding batons.

“It is therefore necessary for the authorities to take drastic action to prevent further damage,” national television reported.

The shooting occurred at dawn after troops trapped some 20,000 demonstrators on a major thoroughfare where a student-led uprising erupted in 1973 and toppled a military junta, the Associated Press reported. Reporters and demonstrators said they saw at least six people killed by troops. This was in addition to three deaths reported by hospitals Sunday.

The government blamed the violence on Chamlong Srimuang, a devout Buddhist and former Bangkok governor whose hunger strike helped mobilize large crowds against the Suchinda government.

A government communique charged that Chamlong had caused the injuries suffered by a firefighter and 10 policemen and the seizure of a fire station.

Chamlong said that the melee, in which rocks were hurled, was caused by “third hands” not connected with the democracy movement. “We will continue our peaceful struggle,” Chamlong told supporters.

The demonstration on Sunday was organized by a group called the Confederation of Democracy, a coalition of opposition politicians and students, which was formed to press for the resignation of Suchinda.

The protests were called off last Sunday, after five leading parties in Parliament agreed to an opposition plan to amend the constitution to bar the naming of a prime minister who had not been elected to a seat in Parliament. The protests resumed when it appeared the five-party coalition might be weakening in its support for the amendment.

The Bangkok Post, Thailand’s leading English language newspaper, printed news pages with articles blanked out, which it said was necessary to conform to press restrictions imposed early today.

Suchinda, who has given conflicting signals about whether he will resign if the constitution is amended, spent the day Sunday in drought-stricken areas of northern Thailand.

At issue is the future role of Thailand’s armed forces, which have played a critical part in Thai government since the absolute monarchy here was abolished in 1932. As the country has become economically developed, the middle class has been agitating for more democratic freedoms and an end to military interference in politics.

Suchinda, former commander in chief of the Thai armed forces, was appointed prime minister after the five pro-military parties emerged with a majority in March’s parliamentary elections. Suchinda did not run in the election, saying that he didn’t want to sully himself by becoming a politician.

Suchinda’s acceptance of the prime minister’s post ran counter to a pledge he had given last November, when as the mastermind of a military junta then ruling the country in the wake of a coup, he promised never to seek civilian office.

Suchinda further angered pro-democracy forces by naming to his Cabinet 11 ministers whom an investigative body looking into government corruption had described as “unusually rich.”